So my oscar is now about 5 inches long... my pleco about the same length. The oscar has taken to chasing the pleco around in the tank and after reading that eating the pleco could kill Fluffy, Im wondering what I should do....

Will they sort this out on their own? Or do they need to be permanently separated?

Its not a continuous thing... but it does happen daily and ends with the pleco hiding or cleaning a different section of the tank...

I would keep a CLOSE eye on them... Fluffy could end up in a great deal of trouble... But chances are the pleco will learn how to avoid the Fluffy!

Nicki--Sue wrote:


yeah, Ive been watching ever since I read that thread about plecos killing oscars trying to eat them... do I even need an algae eater in the tank if I have good filtration? it looks a bit like a territory thing, but I dont know...

If they're roughly the same size I doubt he could even get him partially in his mouth.




No you don't. algae eater generally add far more waste to a tank. And yeah, I think it's a territory thing.

when my oscar started to grow i removed any plecos smaller than 6", just to be sure.
An 8 inch pleco will not be at risk for your oscar.
But beware that your O may grow faster then your pleco.
and nowadays the big O's do not bother with the big plecos.

johnnyphoenix wrote:


yeah, Ive been watching... the oscar has staked out the front of the aquarium as 'his.' he fluffs up the sand in the front until its in mountains in the back. whenever the pleco comes sifting through, he is chased to the back. seems they can be in the back together though, no problem..

does the pleco have a good hide out or cave?
A pleco will not feel at home if he doesn't have a roof over his head.

Noddy wrote:


Don't tell my pleco that or he'll have me and his tankmates building him a house in the tank!

dwencl wrote:


Well, lol yeah...because the Oscar is operating under the usual "Don't you come over into my territory but I'll come into yours whenever I damn well please" rules.

Anyways, if the plec is big enough the oscar really can't do anything to him. As long as he can't 'fit' into the O's mouth and the oscar doesn't go for his eyes (which is fairly rare)...the plec learns pretty quickly that all he has to do is shoo him away no problem. Like noddy mentioned...they're built like tanks, with armor and spines.

Noddy wrote:


he hides out under the filter as its pretty big for the tank.. Im still looking for a bigger tank on my budget as fluffy is getting big quicker than I thought and I have a 20 gallon tank.. Im hoping to have a bigger one by the beginning of August... hes only 5 inches, but still............

beware that a healthy oscar will grow an inch a month and he will run out of space and thus good waterquality real quickly.
Plus if the pleco is a common aka Gibbiceps pleco, that will grow very fast as well.
So a bigger tank is needed quickly indeed,or you will run into health problems but i understand the budget part too.
It's a shame we can only spend our money once...